1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for underbalanced drilling including the step of drilling an oil and/or gas well with a drilling fluid including a biodegradable foaming composition and a gas. The present invention also relates to a method for gas lift production including the step of injecting a gas and a foaming agent into the production fluids to decrease a column hydrostatic pressure and increase fluids production.
More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for underbalanced drilling including the step of drilling an oil and/or gas well with a drilling fluid including a biodegradable foaming composition and a gas, where the foaming composition includes a keratin. Analogously, the foaming composition and gas are suitable for gas lift production operations.
2. Description of the Related Art
In oil and gas drilling operations, it has been the almost universal practice up until recent years to circulate a liquid, such as water, oil, a water-in-oil emulsion, or an oil-in-water emulsion, usually with mud solids, clay particles, suspended therein, to and from the drilling zone during the drilling operation. One of the functions in circulating these drilling fluids, usually in the form of a drilling mud, is to remove drilled solids from the bit and lift cuttings from the bore. As can be readily understood the drilling liquid must be circulated under high pressure to assure entrainment of cuttings and expulsion of mud from the bore hole.
In recent years, some wells have been successfully drilled at a reduced pressure by a different technique in which a compressed gas, such as air, is pumped into the well at the drilling site. This compressed gas flows rapidly up the well bore annulus around the drill collar carrying with it the drilled solids and thus removing them from the drill hole. While in some instances, the drilling operation is essentially a dry process in many formations, water high in electrolyte concentration, enters the bore hole from adjacent water-containing strata. Such water invasion most often occurs while drilling in or through a water bearing subterranean zone, but may also be encountered in any area in the vicinity of trapped underground water.
Some of the advantages of the gas drilling method over the more conventional mud drilling method include increased penetration rate, longer bit life, accurate location of water-bearing zones and measurement of flow, precise location of oil and gas bearing zones, especially those of low formation pressure, flow and pressure testing of productive zones without resort to drill stem tests, a lessening of possible contamination of prospective or known producing zones, and greater flexibility in physical-chemical alteration of the drilling fluid to meet particular down hole conditions. However, one difficulty in mist or dry gas drilling where water seeps into the bore and accumulates in the drilling zone is that the drilled solids tend to agglomerate as the drill string rotates. These agglomerated masses become too heavy to be lifted out by the gas so that antiballing agents, and foaming agents must be introduced into the bore to prevent this condition.
In recent years, the technology of air and mud drilling has been combined in an attempt to provide drilling foams which have greater lifting strength than air but which do not have the pressure limitations of drilling muds.
The rheological properties of aqueous foams are of great importance for a number of applications in petroleum production. These properties include high flow rates in tubes or pipes and in porous media such as oil-bearing sandstones. Aqueous foam has advantages in oil fields that contain viscous oil in low pressure reservoirs. In these operations, the foam raises to the surface not only sand pulverized by the bit but also pebbles and rocks of considerable size.
The requirements for utilization of an aqueous foam in subterranean formations include high stability with waters containing appreciable quantities of soluble salts, such as sodium chloride, calcium salts and/or magnesium salts, and the capability for handling a variety of foam breaking elements such as crude oil and solids. Further the foam must not degrade under extremes of physical environments.
Numerous foam compositions have been proposed and used, however most have proven unsatisfactory in one respect or another. Among the various classes of foaming compositions are nonionics; however, these are affected by salts and high temperatures encountered in drilling. Although many anionic surfactants provide acceptable foams in soft waters, they form foam breaking precipitates in the presence of brine and/or hard water. Cationics are ineffective foamers because of their intolerance to high salinity.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,734,146 B2 discloses a Keratin material as a foaming agent in fracturing fluids, but makes no mention of the use of such foaming agents in underbalanced drilling or in gas lift operations where foamer agent properties are different and needs and end results are different.
The following U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,367,550, 6,454,004, 6,793,730, 6,547,871, and 6,454,008, all include examples of the use of keratin in various oil and industrial applications. However, none of these patents disclose the use of keratins in underbalanced drilling applications as biodegradable, highly effective foaming agent or agent when added to the drilling fluid along with a gas significantly reduces column overhead pressure and reduces column hydrostatic pressure to a value less than or equal to the hydrostatic pressure of the formation.
Thus there is a need in the art for a superior foaming agent especially for use in underbalanced or pressure monitored drilling applications, where the foaming agent is environmentally friendly and biodegradable.